49ers safety Donte Whitner says he’s now Donte Hitner. Via CSNBayArea.com, Hitner said that his lawyer has taken the steps necessary to legally change the name.

Hitner also is willing to do whatever it takes to placate the NFL. Within reason.

Whenever a player changes his number or his name, it can result in a stock of unsold jerseys becoming worthless. Sensitive to this wrinkle, Hitner says he’ll pay for the jerseys, “depending on how many there are.”

“I haven’t seen a whole lot around Candlestick, so I wouldn’t think there should be [many jerseys in stock], unless somebody’s hiding them,” Hitner said.

“If you ask fans around San Francisco and the Bay Area, they call me Donte Hitner anyway,” Hitner added. “I think it’s pretty cool. Everything we do is for the fans, right? We all understand that. It’s entertainment, but at the same time it’s what I do. It’s my game, along with some things that happened recently, that’s why I went with it.”

He’s the first player to change his name for marketing reasons since Chad Johnson became Chad Ochocinco. Eventually, and inevitably, someone will legally change his name to Reebok, Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Doritos, Pepsi, Taco Bell, Legal Zoom, or some other product or brand.

Hey, for the right price and a lifetime supply of cookies, I’ll drop the “FL” and change the “I” to an “E”.

The thing I don’t get is why he would have to pay for the jerseys with his former name on it. Teams trade/cut players all the time, making their former jerseys worthless. Why is this so different? If a player got married and took his wife’s last name, would he also have to pay for the unsold jerseys?

This guy is an average to slightly above average safety at best. He just happened to play the last few years on a monster D. He talks waaaaay too much and this just goes to show how much he needs attention.

Whatever name he goes by he is by far my least favorite player on the team. He talks way more smack than he can back up. He’s a good but not great player who delivers some big hits but also breaks down in coverage way more than he should. The rookie Reid has also make some big hits but hasn’t gotten flagged or fined, and he isn’t out on a tour of self promotion, seems like this is a case where the vet could learn something from the kid.